Coins and batteries should not be on the list of snacks for little kids this holiday, but if that happens at your house, don't panic.

The doctor is in. After a one year break, a pediatric surgeon is once again on the staff at Sacred Heart Medical Center.

The doctor is about a month and a half into his new assignment and says the support from the medical community has been great.

However for George Wadie, it's been a very interesting beginning.

"This is one of the big batteries. This is a quarter-inch battery," explains Dr. Wadie in front of the x-ray viewing screen.

It's a picture of instant indigestion for a 9 month old child. It was Wadie's introduction to his new job at Sacred Heart. Three kids and three foreign object removals the first week.

Dr. Wadie tells KVAL, "One of them ingested a battery and this is pretty dangerous because people think of batteries as very simple foreign bodies that are just metal."

It's taken more than a year for Sacred Heart to recruit a new pediatric surgeon to replace the one who retired
last year. That gap meant a lot of trips to Portland hospitals for young children and their families.

Dr. Charlie Hoffmeister of the pediatrics unit explains, "During this past year I would have had to say I'm sorry; you're going to need to send that patient to Portland because I don't have a surgeon that can evaluate that baby."

Now those trips won't be necessary.

Appendectomies, gall stones, hernias and intestinal obstructions will be just some of the procedures Wadie will do, along with removing those coins and batteries.

3 foreign object surgeries in the first week is quite a way to begin your local practice. Dr. Wadie says with the holiday toy season here, it's a good safety reminder for everyone.

"Prevention is the best thing to do, but if anything like that happens--the child needs to be referred to a hospital and I can take care of this right here," says Wadie.

By the way, the third unusual case for Wadie involved a 3 year old child with a clothes hanger stuck down his throat. We're pleased to report the child survived.

Dr. Wadie comes to Eugene from Western Massachusetts.